Abstract
This article investigates how forced migrants residing in Finland utilise different types of resources in their efforts to reunite with their families. The data includes 36 group and individual interviews (2018–2019) with 43 Iraqi, Afghan, Somali, and Ethiopian forced migrants holding residence permits in Finland, who were either seeking to reunite with their families, or had already brought their families to Finland, or had attempted but failed to achieve family reunification. The results show that a variety of resources are needed to navigate the bureaucracies involved in family reunification. Economic resources in one’s country of origin may be used to pay the high administrative and travel costs, as well as other fees required by government officials to obtain visas for family members. Cultural resources, such as education, are useful when one is trying to make sense of the complicated application process, or seeking work or educational opportunities in the new country. Different forms of social resources can be utilised to seek advice. However, the resources at the disposal of migrants are not the determining factor in attempts to successfully reunite with one’s family. Although they are important, the success of the reunification process depends more on one’s residency status and whether it allows family reunification without a high-income requirement.
Highlights
Temporal and spatial disconnections from home and intimate relations, together with the absence of family members, are inseparable from the phenomenon of forced migration
Utilizing Bourdieu’s theory of capitals in analysing different types of resources, I have investigated the process of family reunification as the ‘field’ in which different resources may or may not be of value
I use the concept of resources instead of capital, since the forced migrants in this study were able to use various economic, cultural, and social assets in their family reunification processes, but these resources were not necessarily transferrable into valuable symbolic capital
Summary
Temporal and spatial disconnections from home and intimate relations, together with the absence of family members, are inseparable from the phenomenon of forced migration. At present, forced migrants are granted one of four different categories of residency in Finland: refugee (asylum); subsidiary protection; compassionate grounds; or residency based on being a victim of human trafficking. Unlike many European countries, and all the other Nordic countries, Finland requires migrants’ transnational families, who are seeking residency through family reunification, to travel to an interview in a specific country instead of giving individuals a choice of interview locations and allowing them to decide This is not an issue for those migrants who have a functioning Finnish Embassy in their country of citizenship but is a huge problem for those who do not; for example, Afghan migrants (many of whom live in Iran) have to travel to New Delhi, India, for this purpose. The participants are referred to as ‘forced migrants’ to stress the specific circumstances faced by those who seek asylum and are granted international protection (in Finland: asylum, subsidiary protection) or other humanitarian residence permits (in Finland: compassionate grounds, victim of human trafficking)
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